Gala (7th September1894 – 10th June1982), born into a family of intellectuals from Kazan (Russia), spent her childhood in Moscow before moving to Switzerland and then Paris. There she befriended such prominent members of the surrealist movement as Max Ernst. In 1929 she travelled to Cadaqués, where she met Dalí. The two fell in love and started to live together, first during an eight-year exile in the United States and then in Portlligat, New York and Paris.

Gala, an enigmatic and intuitive lady famous as Salvador Dalí’s wife, muse and model, is the subject of this exhibition. Abandoning traditional stereotypes on the role of this figure, the show follows her transformation into a fully-fledged artist, exploring her artistic cooperation with Dalí and revealing the possible shared authorship of some works.

The first home designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí has recently opened to the public. Built between 1883 and 1885 as a summer house for the Vicens family, it is a masterpiece of riotous colour in an eclectic neo-moorish style. After over a century of transformations at the hands of various different owners, the World Heritage Site has been returned to its original disposition, while an addition constructed in 1925 has been transformed into a museum. Located in the Gràcia district and surrounded by a verdant garden, the house is open everyday, from 10 am to 8 pm.

The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya has made two major acquisition during the summer.

At an auction held in Barcelona on 31 May 2017 they acquired a panel painting representing the Decapitation of Saint Baudilus, painted by Lluís Dalmau for the old Gothic high altarpiece in the parish church of Sant Boi de Llobregat (Baix Llobregat), one of the few works by the painter to have been conserved.
Lluís Dalmau was one of the principal artists working in Barcelona in the mid 15th century, and was employed at the court of King Alfonso IV. There are only two surviving documented works by this outstanding painter: the famous Virgin of the “Consellers”, made between 1443 and 1445, and the altarpiece from Sant Boi, dated to 1448. The Museu Nacional was able to purchase this exceptional work thanks to a donation by the Palarq Foundation. It will certainly become a well-loved masterpiece of the Museum’s impressive collection of Catalan Gothic painting.

They also acquired 200 photographs by Catalan photographer Oriol Maspons (Barcelona, 1928-2013), thanks to the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation. The new acquisition will enable the organisation of a major retrospective dedicated to this photographer in 2019. Moreover, the generosity of the Nando and Elsa Peretti fundation will enable researchers to study the over 7000 photographs and other photographic material deposited at the Museum by the photographer in 2010.

Diego Rivera, The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, 1931, SFAI, San Francisco

CFP: International Perspectives on the History of Latin American Art, LASA 2018 (Barcelona, 23-26 May 18)

Deadline: 7 August 2017

The Art History of Latin America has been written, for the most part, in the 20th and 21st century. As a discipline it is the product of two distinct points of view: the individual countries’ national art histories and visions generated from other regions, which privilege supra-national conceptions of geography and identity. Be they the Hispanic art histories of the 1930s, the North American passion for Mexican muralism of the 1930s, the European interests in alternative forms of Baroque in the post Second World War period, or the high modernist interpretations of modern art in Latin America during the post-War period, the discipline of art history has been shaped by scholarship generated outside the region, as much as from the scholarship generated within it. In this panel we invite scholars to study the effects of a globalized perspective on Latin American Art History, specifically by analyzing the contributions of other regions to the understanding of the concept of Latin American art. We welcome papers studying any of the topics above, as well as the recent histories that stress critical notions such as race, gender and class to create new readings of Latin American Art History.

To submit a paper proposal, please send a 100-200 word abstract and a c.v. to Michele Greet (mgreet@gmu.edu) and Mercedes Trelles (MERCEDESTRELLES@AOL.COM) by August 7, 2017. Submissions for session proposals are due to LASA by Sept. 7. We will inform you of your acceptance prior to that date so that papers that cannot be included in the panel may be submitted individually.

19 still-lifes and flower-pieces from the Museum’s own collection, by artists such as Juan van der Hamen, Tomas Hiepes and Juan de Arellano are being exhibited before some of them are permanently incorporated into new Renaissance and Baroque displays in 2016. Catalogue in Catalan and Castilian by the curator Joan Yeguas (€28.-).

The exhibit in the Spitzer School’s Atrium Gallery includes photographs, architectural models and casts used in construction. It also showcases the 3D computer imaging software used to analyze and draw precise tridimensional geometry. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Viewing hours are 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.